6 Tricks to Create Killer Content in Financial Services

Content marketing is all the rage in financial services because information is power in the digital age. The more information you can share with audiences, the more you can establish thought leadership and begin to nurture relationships that translate into a more robust pipeline of future clients.

In the new digital age, information is engagement and those firms that can share, publish, and distribute their message through media channels—social and traditional—stand to advance their practices furthest and fastest.

But how can financial services companies kick start a content marketing campaign?

The truth is most financial services companies are sharing market data and information, creating presentations, sending emails, and problem solving client issues every day. Why let this collection of content die on the vine when you can spin it into content gold elsewhere?

The key is to inventory and integrate available content into a proactive, integrated campaign that marketing and PR teams can distribute through the appropriate platforms including the media, blogging efforts, LinkedIn groups, Twitter feeds and email.

How does this work in practice? Here are six real-world tricks you can use to transform available data and information into a content stream that creates a digital path to purchase your products and services:

Use available data and make it your own: Every day, data is released and much of it comes from publicly available sources, the media, government, and the markets themselves. For financial services professionals, that’s pure gold that can serve as the basis for commentary and analysis. Take a real world example: Each year the IRS releases the Data Book that includes an ocean of information about the number and types of IRS audits. Working with a financial services company, we transformed that data into an infographic that served as the foundation for a series of blog posts about IRS audits and what business needs to know about them. These posts were then used as content to feed the client’s social media streams and also fueled a media relations effort that resulted in The NY Times publishing a story that included client commentary. By socializing and sharing the content, the blog post gained wide distribution and visibility, the key to effective SEO. A Google search of “IRS audit rates” now delivers page one visibility for the client.

Extend a newsletter to the outside world: Many financial services companies publish their own newsletter, printed or digital. Much of that content can be repurposed as a byline article as the topic for a webinar, as a post on social media feeds, and as a lynchpin for media coverage. For instance, a recent year-end tax alert for a client led multiple lives, first appearing in the firm’s newsletter and then published as a Washington Post column and then recycled as a blog post on the firm’s own blog. Three birds, one stone.

Promote your problem-solving skills: Each day, financial service professionals are confronted with problems that demand specialized expertise. Those solutions can now be shared with broader audiences as part of a smartly conceived content marketing campaign. To wit, an advisor at one of our wealth management clients kept running into objections every time he presented a fund that was anything less than a 5-Star. The advisor addressed the concern by studying the performance of 5-Star funds (hint: not good). The study became part of a weekly newsletter and resulted in features in MarketWatch, Barron’s and The Wall Street Journal.

Turn media talking points into blog post: About to appear on CNBC or Fox Business? Bloomberg radio or a local news show? You, or your PR firm, will need to prepare talking points to direct the conversation and hit home key messages. Don’t then throw them away. Give them new life by turning talking points into blog posts! The tactic promotes the appearance (and enhances your credibility and authority) while extending the conversation by recycling content that is already at your fingertips.

Cut a white paper into digestible pieces: White papers are full of powerful information and data. But who has time to read a lengthy white paper on a regular basis? Utilize some key data points or insights and create targeted blog posts. For example, a client’s lengthy white paper was transformed into a series of performance charts that then served as ongoing content for the their blog, which was then shared with the media to gain coverage and was published across digital platforms to reach new audiences and enhance the company’s SEO.

Spin internal rants into content: How many times does someone inside your firm turn passionate over a financial topic or issue and let loose with golden nuggets of insights? Capture that enthusiasm and use it as topics for media pitches, blog posts, bylined articles, among other PR efforts. It’s easier than you think. When a client delivered an impassioned rant about the misconceptions small business have regarding 401(k)s, he rattled off five myths he contends with every day. Those five misconceptions were turned into bylined articles, infographics, blog posts and media queries that garnered coverage in Fox Business, Upstart Business Journal, American Business Magazine and CNBC.

Yes. Content is king. But it can be killer to invest the time and money needed to effectively market data, information and analysis online and through the media. But look around. Information is omnipotent, waiting for you to transform into a valuable new marketing vehicle for your firm or practice.